This Young Boy’s Reaction to Learning He’s Getting a New Heart is Priceless

Video of young children going viral is nothing new, but this clip of Ari Schultz has exploded for the most heartwarming reason.

The youngster battled severe health issues all his life. According to the website Echo of Hope, a blog run by the Schultz family, he was prenatally diagnosed with a “critical aortic stenosis and evolving hypoplastic left heart syndrome.”

Ari Schultz even received over 20 surgeries and medical procedures.

Near the end of 2016, Ari Schultz entered Boston Children’s Hospital to wait for a much-needed heart transplant. After months of waiting, the Schultz family finally discovered that a new heart was waiting for Ari. The family captured his reaction to hearing the long-awaited news in a video. They later posting the video to Facebook.

The video was an immediate social media smash, with big baseball fan Ari’s bat-wielding excitement garnering nearly 1.5 million views on Facebook as of March 13. In addition, the story has been covered by numerous media outlets, and posted to the family’s GoFundMe page.

In later social media updates, the family confirmed that the hospital completed the surgery, but Ari wasn’t out of the woods yet.

In a March 8 blog post, Mike Schultz further elaborated on Ari’s current condition and what the future holds for him post-transplant.

Mike Schultz, Ari Schultz father, spoke to Your Daily Dish about the response to the video. “We are so appreciative of all the support he has received from people around the world rooting for him. And if even one more person registers to be an organ donor as a result of the video’s popularity we’ll be very happy.”